


Ghosts in Praxus

by eerian_sadow



Series: Badlands [6]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Community: spook_me, Gen, apocalypse survivors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 23:07:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21261131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eerian_sadow/pseuds/eerian_sadow
Summary: There were a few survivors after the Decepticons destroyed Praxus. Some of them survived much longer than others.





	Ghosts in Praxus

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2019 round of Spook Me (though I'm posting a little late, oops!)  
My monster prompt was: apocalypse survivors  
my photo prompts were: https://images54.fotki.com/v627/photos/6/3814576/16026379/dudekkolejkaswew_jpg1498645988-vi.jpg
> 
> https://images45.fotki.com/v1636/photos/6/3814576/16026379/kroyd_by_binochedd6fklcu_jpgf1-vi.jpg

https://images54.fotki.com/v627/photos/6/3814576/16026379/dudekkolejkaswew_jpg1498645988-vi.jpg

https://images45.fotki.com/v1636/photos/6/3814576/16026379/kroyd_by_binochedd6fklcu_jpgf1-vi.jpg

When Bluestreak was four vorns old, something bad happened to Praxus. He didn't really know what it was, he was still too little to understand things like bombs and radiation poisoning, but he never forgot how hurt and sad and scared his creators had been. He remembered crying when the crystals in the garden died.

He remembered his sire telling him "Don't drink anything your carrier or I don't give you. We don't want you to get sick like the garden."

Sometimes, the nightmares were of him drinking bad energon and falling apart in the darkness without anyone who even knew.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Bluestreak was nine vorns old when his carrier died. They had been living in the ruins of an old hospital, drinking safety sealed medical grade energon and recharging on hard berths that left their wings aching. 

They had heard voices outside and his carrier had stepped through the door to see if they were survivors or empties who needed a mercy kill. The mechs on the street shot him twice with an energy rifle and stolen the few possessions out of his subspace while he bled out on the sidewalk.

Sometimes, the nightmares were about that gang coming back and doing the same to his sire.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Bluestreak was twelve vorns old, old enough to be in a real school learning from good teachers according to his sire, when they heard the first message come across the barely functional communication system in the police station they had moved to after his carrier died. 

"There is energon in Yuss," the message said. "Enough for all survivors willing to live in peace. The new Prime offers a home and safety to any mech willing to work in the city for it."

"Will we go to Yuss, sire?" Bluestreak asked after the message went silent.

"Perhaps," his sire replied. "After you learn to shoot and use a knife properly. You must be able to defend yourself if there is trouble."

_That_ night, and for a few nights after, the nightmares were about his sire being eaten by empties because he didn't know how to use a rifle.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

When he was thirteen vorns old and they had heard the message at least once a cycle every day, they were both startled into silence during his mathematics lesson by a voice they didn't recognize. 

"Hello? Anyone here?" 

Bluestreak curled down as small as he could trying to hide behind the table. His sire stood with a frown. 

"Stay here and stay silent," he whispered. 

Bluestreak nodded and bit his lip.

His sire picked up his pistol and stepped out into the room that had been the lobby before they moved in. Now it was a room where strangers could sleep if they didn't try to hurt them--though there hadn't been any of those in two vorns--secured with booby traps to keep hostile mechs out. 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The stranger was a mech called Jazz and he wasn't alone. The was another mech with him, one who looked like the pictures of the enforcers in the room with the broken vending machine, called Prowl. Jazz looked like one of the pirates from the books his sire had read when he was little, and he laughed when Bluestreak said it aloud.

His sire hadn't looked like it was funny, but Jazz didn't seem upset.

Much later, when the adults thought he was in recharge, he heard Jazz ask, "Will you come to Yuss with us? We got energon and safe places to sleep."

"There are even a few younglings for Bluestreak to be educated and socialized with," Prowl added.

"I cant protect him alone out there," His sire protested "If Melody were still…"

"You wont be alone," Prowl told him. "We will be there with you, until you step inside the city walls."

"Prowl's right. This is what we do. We escort mechs to safety all the time."

Bluestreak stayed awake and listened to the adults as they planned to travel to Yuss. He fell into recharge eventually, despite how much he wanted to listen, but for the first time he could remember, there were no nightmares at all.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was his fourteenth sparkday when Bluestreak put on the small backpack Jazz had found in an old supply closet. It was heavy, full of energon rations that Prowl had found in the old hospital when he took his sire to say goodbye to his carrier. They tasted terrible but lasted all day. 

"You ready to go, Blue?" Jazz held out a hand to him and smiled. 

Bluestreak looked back at the city for a moment as his sire put on a backpack similar to his. There was debris blowing down the street and the rusting form of something that might have been a person once laying in the doorway of the gutted toy shop. Dull and lifeless crystal trees flaked into pieces in their decorative pots. Somewhere, an Empty moaned in hunger.

It was lonely and empty, and he didn't know why his sire had insisted they stay so long.

"Yes." He reached up and took Jazz's hand. "I'm ready to go home."

His sire and Prowl both looked sad, but Jazz just squeezed his hand and led the way out of the ruined city.


End file.
